On a recent visit to Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, I had the chance to speak with Kimberly Powell, the company’s vice president and general manager of healthcare. After asking about the pharma industry’s surging interest in AI, Powell remarked, “Every pharma knows who Nvidia is now.” Curious, I asked her, “How long has that been the case?” Without batting an eye, she replied: “Since December.” While some R&D professionals in pharma were aware of the company, awareness was not pervasive until recently.
The December timing is not a coincidence. OpenAI’s ChatGPT rolled out on November 30, 2022. ChatGPT, which runs on Nvidia hardware, has prompted a reprioritization of AI in the industry. As Powell described it: “From the top down, every group is saying, go do at least two things using AI, and report back. They are really just starting to make it part of the DNA of the c…